Two gigantic black holes are now on a crash course

This artist's concept illustrates a supermassive black hole with millions to billions times the mass of our sun. Supermassive black holes are enormously dense objects buried at the hearts of galaxies. (Smaller black holes also exist throughout galaxies.) In this illustration, the supermassive black hole at the center is surrounded by matter flowing onto the black hole in what is termed an accretion disk. This disk forms as the dust and gas in the galaxy falls onto the hole, attracted by its gravity.NASA/JPL-Caltech

Black holes are one of the most complex entities in the universe and apart from taking photographs, modern science is still unable to answer questions regarding these cosmic bodies. Now, a new study has revealed that two black holes are now heading towards a cosmic collision.

The study published in Astrophysical Journal Letters reveals that these two supermassive black holes, each 800 million times more massive than the Sun, will collide around 2.5 billion light-years away from Earth. As the collision is taking place at such a huge distance, astronomers will have to wait for a very long time to detect the cosmic waves triggered by this upcoming collision.

Even though these two supermassive black holes are already emitting gravitational waves, these waves will not reach us for billions of years, even if it travels at the speed of light. However, the way in which these black holes collide will help astronomers to get a better understanding of these dark space entities. It should be noted that astronomers were not aware of supermassive black hole collision until now, and this new development will help humans to know more about the aftermath of these crashes.

"Even though these two supermassive black holes are already emitting gravitational waves, these waves will. For everyone in black hole physics, observationally this is a long-standing puzzle that we need to solve," said Jenny Greene, the study's co-author in a recent statement, Phys.org reports.

A few weeks back, another study report had revealed that Milky Way and Andromeda, two of the biggest galaxies, will collide in about four billion years. As per experts, this galactic collision will be huge. Only one of these space entities will become victorious while the other one will be absorbed.